pack looks like a good start, i'll experiment with it a bit :)pack 'i' 150 works as expected submits 150,pack 'c' 150 produces warning "Character in 'c' format wrapped in pack" and submits garbage, 150 is not a char i would guess :)i'll test some more complex things and will come back with the results.

kind regardsalex

UPDATE
pack seems to work in some cases, but also produces funny results in other cases.As it seems,it depends on the function it is used on, will further experiment with it.